Each professional season less than 5 per cent of major league baseball players achieve a batting average of 0.300 or better (a "three-hundred hitter"), with the average major leaguer batting only about 0.250. Typically, a three-hundred hitter is a contact-type batter who hits ground balls and line drives and avoids strikeouts, popups, and long fly ball outs. A contact hitter characteristically swings at and connects with the oncoming pitched ball in a slight downward motion when bringing the bat from the "batting stance" position to the "follow-through" position. Also, the contact hitter times his swing to meet the baseball in front of home plate, rather than waiting for the ball to cross the plate. In addition, this type of hitter utilizes full extension of his arms, and shifts his weight during the swing so he is properly balanced to strike the oncoming pitch with maximum effectiveness.
While the hitter is in motion to contact the pitch, it is crucial that the hitter maintains complete concentration and continuous eye contact with the ball. In this way the hitter can react to and swing at the ball as it arrives with varying movement, such as inside-to-outside motion, high-to-low motion, or a combination of these motions brought about by the pitch being, for example, a curve ball, a slider, or a sinker.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,967,822; 4,277,691; 4,383,686; 4,445,685; and 4,681,318 disclose single stanchion tube arrangements for holding a stationary baseball and teach hitting the ball over home plate. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,319,282; 4,664,374; and 4,709,924 disclose basically single tube batting tees (multiple tubes are shown, but only one tee is used per swing), but these patents do depict the possibility of striking the ball in front of the plate. A single tee arrangement does not teach the proper stride and swing to make solid contact with the ball in front of the plate in a relatively planar motion, including the slight downward orientation I espouse. This arrangement precludes the teaching of the desired swing because there is no alignment means to guide the batter with the proper stroke.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,250 discloses a multiple stanchion tube arrangement, but it teaches the development of an uppercut swing which is a home-run type swing rather than a contact swing. The multiple tubes are arranged in triangular fashion on a planar base with the frontal tube having a cup for a baseball and the two back tubes having cups for tennis balls or similar lightweight balls. In practicing a swing, the batter first strikes the tennis balls and then the baseball with one swinging motion. The presence of three balls all in different locations creates a distraction and loss of concentration in focusing on the front ball. Most importantly, however, use of the tee teaches the striking of the ball over the plate. This is in contrast to the philosophy of hitting I espouse, namely, that a good contact hitter connects with the ball before it arrives at home plate. In this way, the batter is able to learn to "go with the pitch", i.e. make solid contact with the pitch where it is thrown, so as to hit the pitch hard and down in order to regularly hit line drives and ground balls. This is known to generally result in greater hit production.
In terms of mechanical construction, the prior art tees have numerous small parts, are cumbersome and often require tools to assemble. Also, the adjustable poles can rust or fill with dirt. Some tees have limited adjustment range, that is, the ball can not be placed at desired spots and heights over home plate. In addition, these tees tend to be unstable since the center of gravity is high due to light-weight bases. Finally, these tees are generally costly to manufacture.
Of course, the game of baseball is, in essence, one of challenge--the batter against the pitcher. So, while a batter is training to hit a pitched ball, it is equally important from the pitcher's viewpoint to practice pitching skills.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,658,329; 4,295,648; and 4,473,227 are representative of pitching practice devices disclosed in the prior art. These references basically describe and claim single-purpose devices that are characterized as providing frame-type target zones. Each frame is composed of a four-sided, rectangular structure, with the high and low members of the frame representing the top and bottom of the strike zone, whereas the left and right members indicate the inside-outside extent of the strike zone. The frame is adjustable so the strike zone may be contracted or expanded. The prior art devices often: have numerous small parts making assembly difficult or contributing to a fragile structure; have protruding parts that may mar the ball; and are prone to damage from errant pitches striking the frame itself.
Thus, a need exists in the art for a baseball teaching device that can be used as a batting tee for teaching a hitter to develop a slight downward swing and thereby hopefully become a contact-type hitter and also as a pitching device to teach a pitcher to throw for a particular strike zone. Such a device should not have a large number of parts that are cumbersome or require tools to assemble, be susceptible to rusting or filling with dirt, an overly limited adjustment range, be unstable, costly to manufacture, be prone to damage a baseball used with the device or be prone to damage from errantly pitched baseballs that impact the device.